Atlanta Attorney Who Shot His Wife and Blamed It on Black Lives Matter Is Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter

Submitted by Dick Kannon on Thu, 12/22/2016 - 17:07

Claud "Tex" McIver is a prominent Atlanta attorney who killed his wife back in September in what he claimed was an accidental shooting inspired by his own fear of Black Lives Matter protesters.

McIver was riding in the backseat of an SUV with his wife Diane one night, when (he claims) he was worried about "unrest" in the city from Black Lives Matter protests, so he asked for his gun. His spokesman said that the gun was on McIver's lap, he fell asleep, and the SUV hit a bump in the road, setting off the gun and fatally injuring Diane.

On Wednesday, McIver was charged with involuntary manslaughter (a felony) and reckless conduct (a misdemeanor), and turned himself into police, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The lawyer's brother, John "Spike" McIver, told the AJC that his sibling was "very depressed" about the situation, especially given the timing.

"He’s upset that this is occurring on Christmas week," McIver said. "They [the police] could’ve waited, but they work in strange ways.”

Tex McIver's lawyer, Steve Maples, said that his client was "very, very embarrassed and very, very humiliated" by the charges. Maples has also changed the story of the shooting since McIver's initial comments, now claiming that there was no bump in the road (a mistake he blames on McIver's spokesman Bill Crane), and that the gun just went off after McIver was suddenly woken up. However, the woman who was driving the car says that the SUV wasn't moving when the shooting occurred.